Graffiti

Being a person who likes to leave things better than I found them, I have never understood the mentality that does graffiti or other forms of vandalism. Some "graffiti artists" might argue that they are trying to improve things by leaving something eye catching behind, but many of them do not leave something good behind. Much of graffiti is vulgar and unsightly, seeking to show disrespect or to draw attention to the vandals themselves, and most people do not appreciate having their property defaced or having to clean up graffiti. In this post I am in no way trying to encourage or excuse vandalism, but since graffiti happens, I will try to look at some of the effects that are actually interesting or even beautiful. Some graffiti is quite creative ... if only that creativity could be directed into more acceptable activity....

I'll start off with some that are really pretty cool.

Here's a staircase illusion.

Here is some modern art done by someone named Banksy, a British street artist with an international reputation.

I am assuming that the next two examples of "street art" are graffiti rather than done by the community paint crew.

I found this picture on a site that called the picture on the wall graffiti, but it is actually something done by an ad agency called STIR Milwaukee, USA.

9 Comments on “Graffiti”

I don’t have a lot of experience with graffiti, but I do enjoy a cleverly amended sign via graffiti. There are some stores in some parts of America where they keep bottles of spray paint under lock and key in order to control the distribution of the paint to prevent against graffiti artists.

At the moment graffiti is very mainstream. There are a number of artists who do graffiti installations in galleries or museums. There’s even a company (Montana Cans) making spray paints especially for artists.

I know that in some cities you can’t buy spray paint if you’re under 18. In Chicago graffiti became such a problem that they made it illegal to even sell spray paint. You have to go way out into the suburbs to find any.

Part of the reason spray paint cans are under lock and key is because of a sad drug problem. they sniff the propellant. Can’t believe wanting to do that!

My brother is a good graffiti artist … on the computer! He is good at art in general, though, and draws things that look like graffiti. So far as I know, the only places he has “placed” his art are legal places. I think perhaps under some Ohio river bridges you might find his design of his name combined from the following – N8. He has taken some amazing photos of bridges, going places that -umm- stretch the legal limits? to capture the perfect photo. When he was 15, his design won the bid and he painted a small town post office sign for their 75th anniversary in Chapman Ranch, Texas. So, I guess he did “graffiti” a sign. ha ha! Unfortunately, not long after that, someone stole the sign!

@Michael – I’m with you on cleverly amended signs, so long as it does not make the sign unreadable. I’ve seen signs in Greenville with gang graffiti on them, which is troublesome.

@Jason – One reader sent me privately links to the works of a spray paint artist named Paco Rosic who has done a replica of the Sistine Chapel using spray paint that’s quite impressive. Here’s a link to a news story about him.

I have a great admiration for graffiti artists. Obviously not all of the messages that they paint are God-honoring, yet what can we expect from people who have not had their lives changed by the Gospel?

It’s interesting to consider all of the symbolism found in well-done graffiti. Colors, shapes, and styles all indicate the state of mind of the artist as well as the message that he wishes to convey.

While I don’t have the skill to do good graffiti, or the desire to break the law to do so, I have a great appreciation for the work of graffiti masters.

Just stumbled across your blog (love it) and really enjoyed this post. My six-year-old daughter is currently outraged every time she sees graffiti on a building – but then, none of OUR graffiti is as beautiful or clever as you’ve listed here. Thanks for sharing!

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My name is Rob Loach and I welcome you to my blog. People come here for an "instant vacation." You can learn more about me and about my instant vacations, including why my blog is called "ivman's blague," by visiting the about page, where you can watch my TV interview about my blog. My site is thirteen years old, so check out the tabs at the top of this page, subjects of interest to you in the tag cloud (below), and older blog posts (about 750 of them) not on the home page of the blog. Though I am posting less often than at first, there's still lots of archived humor here for you to enjoy!

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